Background: I played pRO in 2004-2008. I would say I was doing fairly well, I was running 7-11 bots depending on the situation. (3x XP multiplier. WOE Agit competition,etc).

Fast forward this year, some of my friends from my old guild Civitas Dei decided to play again. They invited me about 3weeks into the server’s launch.

Being a family man now, spending PHP on this game would not be prudent. I promised I would not be spending PHP on this game.

I played multiple characters during my pRO career but the merchant class was closest to my heart so I created one. Day3 into the low-rate server and my merchant was strugling, limited pots, no good weapon, etc. I decided to spend 1k PHP to give him a boost with a promise that’s the last PHP I spend other than internet and electricity on this game. I kept my promise. I would say around day30 I was financially stable with a daily earning of 1-2M on just 3-4 hours of RO gametime.

So how did i do it? My whole plan was to earn good zeny even while I am not in the game.

1. CREATE multiple buying and vending merchant – Currently I have three. There is a youtube video on creating a buying merchat, look for it. Also make sure one of them has OC/DC maxed. Wag tamad, gamitin sya. 24% is huge.

2. STUDY THE MARKET – Find fast moving items. I knew with the server being new, forging materials would be selling like hotcakes. At first I needed capital so I did buying/selling loots at the wolf map. Then I started buying forging materials low and sold it high. Know which map/ towns supplies the items. Sample: Mystic frozen is abundant in Izlude due to Byalan.

3. CREATE A MARKET – You have the goods, how do you make sure you dispose of it? Answer: “ALL FORGING NEEDS”. The merchant at lower prontera kafra is mine. If you remember way before, that area was not so much populated by merchants, and they were vending all sorts of things. I made sure “ALL FORGING NEEDS” had most of the rare forging materials and she was always positioned in one area. As of today, that area is now ladened with buying and selling forging items. It all started with one merchant being Online almost 24/7 with a staple set of forging materials.

4. SUPPLY and DEMAND – Always be intune with the market’s demand. Make sure to move your prices up or down depending on the situation. I still remember making a “killing” in Amethyst. I was buying at 15k and selling at 70k.. those were the good old days.

5. HELP your co-players. DO NOT FALSE ADVERTISE – The initial plan of my vendor was to make sure everyone had access to forging materials, there were free forging left and right, getting the forge material was difficult part (some sellers did OP). Positive Karma is real, I made sure my prices was in accordance to the demand, in return I earned well while helping regular players have access for forging mats. BTW, I can’t sell too low, else the forgers will buy all the materials.

In the phro community, zeny wise, I would say I am in the middle of the pack.This is a far cry from pRO days when I was running a GR+GTB set with +10s and supplying my division with mastela and royal jelly in sieges. The difference is that my kayamanan today came from a measly 1k php, the amount I spend weekly back in 2005.

PS. I decided writing this fully knowing my PHRO earnings will take a hit. It does not matter “Knowledge is wasted if not shared” (motto). Happy leveling folks. Clang Clang +1

Admin’s Side note: I like how “DO NOT FALSE ADVERTISE” was emphasized. To be honest, a lot of Filipino Vendors had been false advertising and scamming especially in Prontera. One of the main reasons why Organized Vending was promoted so we can easily keep track of Scammers and Fake Advertisers. False Advertising is a short-term earner. It could make you earn a lot in a day, but not within a year. You can lie to people and earn a lot from them, but they surely will avoid you the next time they find you. So if you are planning for long term businesses, in-game or in real life, DO NOT LIE. I also suggest people NEVER TO BUY from those fake advertisers like FLY WING 40z then sells it at 43z or B>Steel 9k and buys it at 6999. Please don’t buy or sell to them so they stop doing it. I hope this post increases your sales.